Spring Country Rising
by Sage Lightning
Summary: A reimagining of the Fourth Shinobi World War, in which it starts far earlier and for different reasons. While the nations of the mainland devastate themselves, a new power rises in the distance: Spring Country. When one side decides to try and seize Spring for its technology, a chain of events occur which could lead to the end the Age of Ninja as they know it. M for swear/violence
1. Target: Spring Country

**Disclaimer: I own nothing used in this fanfic.**

Author's note: I suck at writing adventure fics, yet I keep on wanting to write one involving a crossover between Naruto and The Legend of Zelda. And when I do try to write one, the first chapter or two gets ignored by the fanfiction community. I must be a glutton for punishment or something. Anyway, here's my latest attempt. This time, I'm sticking with the Narutoverse for the most part, the more major references won't occur until the middle of the story and onwards. I just find New Hyrule and Snow/Spring country too easy to connect to one another (Spring country's rather advanced technology, rails appearing out of nowhere in the movie, isolated large island, etc), but I will still minimize the Legend of Zelda overtones at first.

Also, events are a bit different than in canon, which will be explained shortly. Some things are still mostly the same however, such as personalities. Review, please?

* * *

**Spring Country Rising**

Arc One: The Fourth Shinobi World War

Chapter One: Target: Spring Country

_The Fourth Shinobi World War has been raging for fifteen years, ever since Konoha, at the usurper Danzo's bidding, attacked Lightning Country upon its failed attempt to kidnap the Hyuuga Heiress. The continent divided itself into three factions: Konoha, Oto, Suna, and Ame; Kumo, Iwa, Kiri, and Taki; and a smattering of neutral, non-belligerent nations. One of the neutral nations, Spring Country was aligned with the Kumo faction until a counter coup resulted in the death of its ruthless usurper leader Doto eight years into the war and thus pulled out of the war. The two warring factions eventually fought themselves into a stalemate, and signed a temporary cease fire. Yet the cease fire meant nothing to Kumo, whose Kage, with greedy eyes, turned his attention to a target seemingly too tempting to leave alone...a former ally._

Kumogakure

As the sun finally began to rise over Kumogakure, a tall, dark skinned man walked up to its large central Kage Tower, the Tower itself dwarfed by the imposing mountains surrounding the village. The two Chunnin guards at the Tower doors tensed upon seeing the man approach, but for a somewhat different reason than one would expect in the midst of a conflict.

"Yo, I'm Killa Bee and I've got to see, mah bro A this fine lovely day, yeah!"

The guards winced slightly.

"Please, by all means, go on through!"

B grinned and gave a thumbs up as he entered the tower. The two guards sighed in relief.

"Thank Kami...if he rapped more often on the _battlefield_, we'd have won the war already," One of the guards quipped as his partner nodded in agreement.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Raikage A was locked in an epic battle against the mortal enemy of all leaders: Paperwork. The powerful Kage used every technique at his disposal to try and outwit his opponent, but no matter what he did, Paperwork not only survived but increased in number. A growled in annoyance as Paperwork seemed to taunt him. Suddenly, someone softly knocked on the door.

A smashed his fist on his desk, smashing it to pieces and scattering his vile enemy to the four corners of the office.

Breathing heavily, he answered the knock by shouting: "WHAT?!"

His assistant Mabui, a young dark skinned woman, peeked her head into the office cautiously.

"Um...Lord Hokage, B is here to see you."

A slowed his breathing; he had more important matters to attend to now.

"Fine, send him in."

Mabui nodded, raising an eyebrow at the state of his office, and then left the room. The door swung wide open as B enthusiastically entered.

"A...what happened here, this mess'll make the janitor lose his cheer, oh yeah!"

"Cut the crap and listen up B!"

B quickly entered his serious mode as the Raikage gave a warning glare.

"I am loathe to admit it, but despite our side having more Great Shinobi Villages and more Jinchuriki, we are losing this war."

B grimaced; he himself had been driven back by some of Orochimaru's _experiments,_ despite having gone into tailed demon mode. A continued, turning to face the window and the view of Kumo it offered.

"We need more power, and I think I've found a way to get some."

A walked to a nearby cabinet and took out a map of the northern part of the elemental continent and the sea surrounding it. He placed it on a nearby wall and put his finger on a sizable island some distance northeast of Lightning Country.

"This is Snow Country, I'm sure you've heard of it. Since the coup that killed our ally Doto Kazahana, it has isolated itself from the rest of the continent and re-named itself Spring Country. Rumor and the little information our side's spies have managed to retrieve have suggested that that country has somehow managed to dramatically warm its climate via the use of some sort of machine."

"A machine? How? Even chakra couldn't do a thing like that." B asked.

"I don't know, but the information seems credible enough. If Spring could do that with a machine, imagine what else it could do with machines. It could have technology that, if we seized it, could let us destroy the Leaf and its allies! Or, it could soon enter the war and cause either side problems."

"So..." B said as he put his fingers on his chin in a thinking pose, "You're having me lead a pre-emptive strike!"

"Exactly B. As we speak, our allies are sending what troops they can here. When they arrive, I want you to lead them across the ocean, in ships of course, to invade and subjugate Spring. Capture their technology; do NOT let it be destroyed! Understood?"

"Yo. Gotcha. Those foos better write their wills, 'cause Killa Bee's gonna get some kills, yeah!"

"I SAID NO RAPPING B!"

"Aww...party pooper."

* * *

Over the next three days, thousands of shinobi from the Kumo alliance converged at Lightning Country's main port city, waiting for the order to board the ships Kiri was providing and launch the invasion. Once B arrived, he gave the order and the army of 10,000 shinobi began to board. As they did so, one of the Taki ninja was playing with her headset, fascinated with the static and crackling noises it was making, when suddenly a series of beeps came though. She dropped the headset in surprise, but the noise stopped a couple of seconds afterward. She blinked her eyes and scratched her head full of green hair.

"What was that?" she muttered to herself, confused, as she glanced at the crowd of shinobi, and then at the sky.

"Fuu, stop playing around and start moving already, geez..." A male Taki ninja next to her complained.

Shrugging her shoulders, she picked up her headset and started moving towards the boats. She was more interested in the invasion, and the new place she would see.

* * *

Five thousand feet above the assembled shinobi army, the source of the mysterious signal hovered in mid-air. It was a large gray colored dirigible airship, camouflaged via a genjustu seal which made it look like blue sky to those below. The airship was about 150 feet in length with a crew of fifteen people. A flag fluttered on top of the airship; its background was light green, with five gray rectangles arranged in a half circle covering the top half of a dark blue circle. It was from Spring Country, and it was but one of a dozen such airships hovering above the shinobi continent, listening and watching with sophisticated equipment, and then relaying their findings via a variable frequency code back to Spring Country, where it was processed and disseminated to its government. The message Fuu heard was a warning about their imminent attack. Things would go very wrong indeed for the invasion force when it arrived.

* * *

**P.S. Author's Note:** I wanted to make the Spring Country flag this story's cover image, but apparently this website's image uploader hates Microsoft Paint and ends up slicing the picture in half no matter what I do otherwise. So I guess we're stuck with my default author symbol.


	2. It's Time

**Disclaimer: Still own nothin'.**

Chapter Two: It's Time

Spring Country, Capital City

Two men, both in their twenties, sat in a small brightly lit room filled with papers and electronic equipment, bored out of their minds. They were two of Spring Country's Communications Officers (CO's), tasked with the retrieval and relay of all incoming communications from the Spy Fleet hovering above the Continent. Not much had happened recently after the cease-fire was declared. There were a few minor troop movements here and there, but those always amounted to fits of paranoia on the part of the Kage. So the two CO's spent their spare time playing cards and talking about various social and political happenings.

"Heh, I win this round." One of the officers said as he revealed a straight.

"You got lucky Koji, you still suck at poker." The other officer replied dismissively.

"You wish Satoshi." Koji bantered back with a grin before moving on, "So, have you heard whether the Chancellor has come back from training yet?"

Satoshi began to shuffle the cards again.

"Nope; he's still sending out clones from wherever he is. I wonder what's got him spooked though...you think he suspects an attack from the Continent sometime soon?"

"Who knows? _We_ certainly haven't heard anything of the sort." Koji said as Satoshi began to deal the cards.

Suddenly, a device began to emanate a series of loud beeps. The two CO's immediately sprang into action.

"Incoming message, set the receiver to match the frequency drift!" Koji ordered, being the senior CO.

Satoshi did as he was told, and a strip of paper began to come out of another device. Satoshi grabbed the paper as Koji began to quickly translate the otherwise undecipherable gibberish the scrambled message was. After a minute of tense translation, Koji had the message. He paled.

"Koji?"

Koji handed the paper to Satoshi, whose eyes widened.

"...Send this to the Chancellor's office via the emergency channel." Koji said in a rather distant voice.

"Goddesses save us..." Satoshi muttered as he set himself to that task.

* * *

The Chancellor's office was located in Capital City's Grand Legislature building. After the current Chancellor and a man named Sandaiyuu Asama had overthrown Doto Kazahana, they, like the rest of the populace, were less than lukewarm about the idea of being ruled by one person. The rightful Daimyo agreed; besides, Koyuke wanted to be an actress more than she wanted to rule a country.

And from the ashes of Doto's tyranny, the First Spring Republic was born. The country was ruled by its own people; candidates from various factions ran for a seat in the Legislature for a three year term, or the position of Chancellor for a five year term. All adult citizens could choose who they thought was the faction with the best ideas and vote for it (basically proportional representation and ranked choice voting in real life). The first Chancellor was Sandaiyuu Asama; he tried to dissuade the people from voting him in, fearing the precedent that it would set, but they didn't want anyone else to lead them.

During his term, Sandaiyuu and the Legislature began the policy of isolation from the rest of the Continent, reflecting the disgust the people felt towards war and absolute power. The country set to work repairing the damage done during Doto's reign. Many new inventions were made for purposes as varied as communication, mass production, and fuinjutsu devices and applications. The latter was the specialty of the current Chancellor, Rai Fujito, who also found himself drafted by Spring's people to become chancellor at the age of seventeen. The few people who objected to his youth were gently reminded that Suna's Kazekage first gained power when he was fifteen.

However, as he made sure to tell them, the Rai the people saw was a shadow clone. Shortly after the rebellion overthrew Doto, Rai began to believe that, in the course of the war raging on the Continent, they would eventually be targeted by one of the two factions. Spring Country had no jinchuriki, no Kage-level ninja, and was sparsely populated at the time although careful immigration would later allow Spring's population to rise. He promptly threw himself into training, into meditation, and into further perfecting his sealcraft and continued doing so while sending clones out to help rebuild the country. He knew the blow was coming; he had to be ready for it when it came. And the news he had been expecting for years was about to arrive.

* * *

A loud buzzing echoed throughout the Chancellor's office, startling the clone who had been busy working on Paperwork. Paperwork was on the verge of oblivion, and the Rai clone almost didn't want to stop the fight. But the buzzing was coming from the emergency channel, and neither he nor Sandaiyuu had ever heard it go off during its four year existence. This had to bad.

Rai flicked a switch, opening a line of communication to the CO department.

"This is Chancellor Fujito's clone speaking." the clone said in an authoritative voice.

"This is CO Satoshi," Satoshi's voice began at a fast and nervous clip, "I believe the secure channel protocols may need to be applied here."

The Rai clone flipped another switch.

"Proceed."

"We have just received intel that a large shinobi force numbering around 10,000 is departing Lightning Country's main port. Indications are that they are headed here."

"Damn." Rai swore, and then said, "Thank you for your service. The CO department will continue to function as normal until the situation merits otherwise. Dismissed."

The device powered down. The clone stood up from his seat and looked out the window. A decently sized city lay within his view; there were skyscrapers in various states of completion, cable cars for mass transit, shops, parks, schools, and businesses, all surrounded by a fifty foot tall by twenty foot thick wall which had just been completed several weeks ago. Spring Country was one of the most prosperous nations in the Elemental Continent, rivaled only by its fellow neutral nations Wave and Iron.

The clone sighed.

"It's time."

And then the clone dispelled.

Spring Country, In a cave near Rainbow Glacier

A lone figure sat on a fairly large rock in the middle of a dimly lit cave, meditating in a cross-legged position. The cave itself was part of the ruins of an ancient temple, evidence of a previous civilization that had once called itself "New Hyrule". Statues, paintings, old books, and three-triangle shapes abound, and the place was occasionally visited by archaeologists, the only people permitted, aside from himself, into the ruins by Chancellor Fujito so as to both preserve it and allow the people of Spring to know the ancient history of the island they lived on.

Rai continued to meditate. His light tan colored face, what was vivible around his eyes at least, was slightly worn, making him seem older than he was. He was wearing a light gray one-piece form-fitting battle suit (kinda like Lee's) and a mask and hood which included a long scarf which hung down from the top of his head and also covered his brown hair. The scarf ended in a point, and many characters were written in lines across the whole thing; seals. He was wearing gloves, and a faint golden glow was visible from underneath his right glove.

Rai's eyes suddenly opened as he received the memories from his clone. He stood up and made a few handsigns. His battle suit was replaced by light gray pants and shirt, and a dark gray trench coat with yellow stripes on the bottom of the coat and sleeves. Rai unsealed a flute he had in his trench coat and allowed a grim expression to overcome him.

"It's time."

He then played a melody he had adapted from an ancient Hylian book and teleported away in a vortex of golden light.


	3. A Meeting of the Legislature

**Disclaimer: (to the tune of the State Farm ins. jingle) Like a broken record, I still own nothin'**

Chapter Three: A Meeting of the Legislature

Rai arrived in his office just a minute after his clone had dispelled. He quickly pressed a different button on the square communication device's panel. This button sent a signal to all one hundred members of the Legislature; it indicated that the Chancellor was calling for an emergency meeting within the next hour. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Rai was sure that the meeting was going to be a madhouse of conflicting opinion; it always was. But after Doto's reign, Rai wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

Spring Country's Legislature was divided into three main factions, political parties if you will, and a few independent politicians. The first of three was the Merchants. As the name suggests, the Merchants were a party of businesspeople and they were interested in pro-business policies. They tended to be urban in nature, and mostly lived in Capital City and Port City. They had forty politicians in the legislature. The second was the Techs. They were a party of scientists, engineers, and technophiles nearly exclusive to the capital, although a few also lived near Rainbow Glacier super volcano where the Research and Development Department was located. They were most interested in policies that would promote science, engineering, and education. They had thirty legislators. The third major party was the Shinobi. From the beginning they denounced what Doto had done with the use of chakra; they said they had always disagreed with what Doto and his elite followers had done, but had been too afraid to do much about it until Rai and Sandaiyuu came along. They favored policies that allowed for some continued use of chakra and the shinobi arts in Spring Country, and were spread out across the island. The Shinobi and Tech parties often supported each other in a sort of coalition; the Shinobi had twenty of their own in office. The remaining ten were made up of independents or minor parties, the most prominent independents being Sandaiyuu and, present as the tie-breaking vote, Chancellor Fujito.

Fifty minutes after Rai sent the signal, most of the legislators had arrived. The meeting chamber itself was centrally located on the second floor of the Grand Legislature building. The room was a hundred feet long and wide, and twenty feet tall. The seats were spread out in a circle around the room in a three level deep pew like design; each legislator had his or her own desk from which to put papers and make use of an electronic voting system. The Chancellor's seat was similar in every aspect except for a gavel which lay on its desk. And hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room was a two-sided display that showed the total vote for each issue put to a vote.

A thick tension spread across the room, as the few remaining legislators filed into the chamber. This was the first time they had ever been called to an emergency session. Whispers of an imminent attack began circulating among those assembled. Objects and fists started flying as the Merchants, still angry at everything having to do with chakra, accused the Shinobi of all sorts of blasphemies and crimes against humanity. Sandaiyuu, who was sitting in the third row, just covered his face with his hand.

The one hour mark came and the doors opened, which caused Sandaiyuu to breathe a sigh of relief. It was Rai. Rai gazed around the room at the mayhem that had broken out, and then causally went to his seat.

"ORDER!" BANG!

Rai put down the gavel and cleared his throat, raising his right eyebrow expectantly. The angry politicians suddenly stopped bickering and returned to their respective seats, straightening out their clothing, trying to look professional. Rai stood up, as was the custom when a legislator or Chancellor wanted to address the chamber.

"When we're all done _fighting ourselves_, I have an issue of immense importance that needs to be addressed."

The legislators sat silently. One of them, a Tech, stood up.

"Is that really you, Chancellor, or just another one of your clones?"

"It's me; my training's been brought to an abrupt end by the issue at hand."

The Tech sat back down, satisfied but still somewhat nervous.

"Right. A little over one hour ago, the airship Coastal Spy II reported that a large force of Kumo Alliance Shinobi was embarking from Lightning Country. Further consultation with the airship Kumo Spy confirms that this fleet...is heading for Spring Country. It will arrive here in a few days."

The legislature exploded into fury as nearly everyone stood up and started shouting war cries, doubts about the information's accuracy, and desires to capitulate when the invasion force arrived.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Again, the legislature silenced itself as Sandaiyuu Asama slowly stood and glared at the assembly.

"We didn't overthrow a tyrant and work until blisters formed on our hands and our faces prematurely line with wrinkles just to have it all blown to pieces by this sort of threat! Of course we'll fight, but we can't underestimate what it is we're up against! Of course the information is correct; if you think otherwise, you can go ahead and waste your time interviewing the CO's themselves! And again, we'll fight; take that knowledge of shinobi arts and use it against _them_!"

The legislature looked cowed as they stared in shock at the normally silent and reserved Sandaiyuu.

"...that is all."

He then sat back down, wiping the sweat that had formed on his forehead. The rest of the legislature sat back down as well. Rai glanced around at his suddenly silent colleagues, and then stood up.

"There's little to debate at this point. The invading force is on it's way. It's time to put the question of war or capitulation to a vote."

The room filled with clicks as people voted. After several tense minutes, the display revealed the final vote total: 99 for war, 0 for capitulation, 1 abstention. Rai grimly nodded his head.

"Very well. The Constitution states that in times of war, the current Chancellor is to become the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and is to name a temporary Chancellor to manage non-war related activities, upon final approval of a supermajority of the Legislature. I nominate Sandaiyuu Asama as Temporary Chancellor, as the two positions are inherently different in nature. Any other candidates?"

None volunteered.

"Very well. First, the CIC vote."

Clicks filled the room again. After a few more minutes the screen showed: 75 for, 15 against, 10 abstentions. Rai closed his eyes.

"I will do my utmost to protect Spring Country and its citizens against these invaders." He paused, the seriousness of the situation beginning to weigh on him. He wasn't one for long speeches to begin with. "Now...the Temporary Chancellor vote."

After a few more minutes, the vote results were: 99 for, 0 against, 1 abstention. Sandaiyuu stood back up and walked over to the Chancellor's seat. Rai moved aside, and handed Sandaiyuu the gavel.

"Are there any more issues to be brought forth?" Sandaiyuu asked, addressing the legislature.

The legislature fidgeted, until one of the Merchants stood up.

"Of course not! Now let's get ready to throw these fuckers out of Spring when they show their sorry asses!"

The assembled politicians cheered in agreement.

"Then I hereby draw this emergency session to a close. I trust Commander Fujito will begin evacuating non-essential civilians to the mountain bunkers." Sandaiyuu said and then smacked the gavel down with an almighty BANG.

The politicians quickly began to file out of the chamber as Sandaiyuu and Rai stood at the Chancellor's seat.

"That went better than I thought it would when I first heard the fighting before hand." Rai said.

"Well Rai, if there's one thing even these folks agree on, it's that we've had it with tyrants." Sandaiyuu replied, his face becoming serious. "But still...we have some advanced equipment, but only a small army. It'll be difficult to raise even half of the number the Kumo Alliance has against us. I hope you have a plan."

Rai nodded.

"I do, but it's not a sure thing. We need a degree of luck, and we need my cousin over at the R & D department to have completed those new flying machines in time..."


End file.
